Mike's Noise

Lent - The Significance of Repetitive Prayer

This Lenten post has been very difficult for me to write, because it involves an examination of a subject that I have always struggled with - prayer.

I have decided to make this post into a set of reflections on a passage from the book Everything Belongs, written by Fr. Richard Rohr.  The passage begins thusly: "Prayer is not primarily saying words or thinking thoughts.  It is, rather, a stance.  It's a way of living in The Presence."

Growing up in a Protestant fundamentalist home, I was taught that prayers in fact were a recitation of words or thoughts.  It was supposed to be an improvised verbal communication with God, spontaneous and heart-felt, not read or memorized or recited repetitiously.

My religious tradition even shied away from formal written prayers or recitations like The Apostle's Creed. About the only liturgical prayer that was ever spoken in my Nazarene church was The Lord's Prayer; I suppose that one was okay because Jesus himself prayed it. We also occasionally had congregational “responsive readings,” but we were very careful not to consider these readings actual “prayers.” And we read the liturgical scriptures describing The Last Supper during Communion. But again, this was considered a formal ceremony (like a wedding, where a liturgy is also performed) and not a prayer. We sang the Doxology, but considered it to be a hymn, not a prayer.

Great prayers, then, were great improvisations. I remember an elderly gentleman in our church, Brother Oquain, who could “really pray,” as my mother put it. He had a strong voice and an incredible command of King James English, and he could deliver the most passionate, poetic prayer improvisations that I have ever heard -- “OOOoooooh gracious Heavenly Father. We beseech Thee, O God. Shew Thy mercies upon us. Bless us with Thy Holy Spirit ...” and so on. THAT was great prayer. 

So when we rhetorically asked, "How do you pray?", I think what we really wanted to know was how do you develop the skill to deliver that kind of riveting oratory?  What we should have been asking was, How do we find The Presence?

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Fr. Rohr continues - "It is, further, a way of living in awareness of the Presence, even enjoying the Presence.  The full contemplative is not just aware of the Presence, but trusts, allows, and delights in it."

Contemplation -- how about that!  Prayer is not a soapbox for our personal hopes and grievances.  It is not a time for us to do the talking.  Instead it is a time for us to listen, to be aware.  It is a meditative endeavor that requires us to be seekers rather than rhetoricians.  It's not really even a conversation, in the sense that we would feel obligated to recite a spiritual grocery list of wants and needs, or a list of divine directives, or a litany of complaints about how poorly the world is treating us, and then sit in impatient silence expecting, no, demanding, a response from God.

So, how do we pray?  How do we wind ourselves down, stop the demands and worries and grievances whirling around in our minds, and seek His still, small voice?  How do we empty ourselves and enter fully into His Presence?

For two thousand years, Christians have used repetitive, meditative prayers to wash away the grime of everyday life, as a way of focusing their consciousness on the miracles and mysteries surrounding the life of Jesus Christ and birth of the Church through the in-filling of the Holy Spirit:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Hail Mary, Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.

No complaints.  No questions.  No directives.  Just simple praise, and pleas for mercy, salvation, and, of all things, more prayers.  It can't be that simple, can it?

Maybe it is.  Maybe the real trick is emptying ourselves, making ourselves vulnerable and inviting His spirit to fully bond with us.  The Apostle Paul calls this process sanctification -- yet another term that I have grown to appreciate in a far different way that I was originally taught as a child.

Another one of my favorite Catholic authors, Fr. Henri Nouwen, says: "It requires a lot of inner solitude and silence to become aware of these divine movements.  God does not shout, scream, or push.  The Spirit of God is soft and gentle like a small voice or a light breeze.  It is the spirit of love ... The Spirit of Love says: 'Don't be afraid to let go of your need to control your own life.  Let me fulfill the true desire of your heart.'"

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Even if you are not comfortable with repetitive or meditative prayer, let me encourage you to try it anyway.  Start with something simple, like "Glory Be To the Father":

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

As you repeat the prayer, begin to block out the things in your world that, in turn, block out your ability to feel His presence.  Then offer a simple, heart-felt praise.  Thank Him for his blessings.  Ask Him to heal the sick.  Ask for guidance.  Then quietly sing The Doxology.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Amen.

If you are seeking mercy or healing for a loved one, please include those things.  But forget about the list of things for you.  It's not about you, as a former pastor used to tell us, it's all about Jesus.

May God bless you through your meditative prayer.

Lent - blogging the Rosary

It's been a while since I've written about Christianity.  Instead, I have been blogging about politics and current events on pretty much a daily basis at WizBang.  I enjoy it, but lately it has become very draining emotionally.  There is so much bad news out there, and so much to be critical of, and writing about it every day can -- and will -- affect your attitude and your spiritual health.

So I have decided to spend some time focusing on the Gospel and on the life of Jesus Christ.  Since Lent is a season of prayer and reflection, and since millions upon millions of Roman Catholics will be praying the Rosary during Lent, I have decided to write about the Rosary prayers from a Protestant point of view.  Hopefully my audience will find my ruminations edifying.  I am also hoping that Roman Catholic readers will not find them to be overly simplistic or misguided.

I was raised in the Church of the Nazarene in southeast Texas.  I grew up in a community that was, culturally, very Roman Catholic.  There were lots of Cajuns, Hispanics, and later on thousands of Vietnamese in our community.  This probably made the Protestant fundamentalists feel somewhat isolated and defensive.  I was raised in a very strict Protestant fundamentalist home and we attended a church that was very much traditionally fundamentalist with an emphasis on "holiness."  Without getting off-topic and into a lengthy discussion of "Nazarenedom," I'll just say that our tradition very heavily emphasized temperance of all kinds (alcohol, tobacco, dancing, movies and worldly entertainment, profanity and all aspects of the "sexual revolution) and taught that salvation was a two-step process:  step one was "getting saved" by confessing and repenting of one's sins, and step two involved "entire sanctification," whereby the Holy Spirit would completely purge sinful desires, thus enabling a disciplined Christian to lead a sinless life.  Of course if you sinned again, you were obligated to confess it immediately and ask God for forgiveness; if you did not do so and you unexpectedly died with "unconfessed sin on your heart," you would go to Hell.  Of course, anyone who had not formally confessed their sin to God and received forgiveness for it was automatically destined to spend eternity in Hell.

My immediate family (and most fundamentalist Christians that I knew) took a very dim view of Catholics -- they drank alcohol, they smoked, they worshiped little plastic statues of Jesus and Mary, and they could sin all they wanted and then their priest would tell them that everything was okay.  They said funny prayers over and over again, and they observed all of these strange rituals that were supposed to guarantee them entrance into Heaven.  Lent, of course, was one of those rituals.  It was meaningless, of course, because we all knew that Catholics wallowed in sex and alcohol during Mardi Gras, only to feign repentance and sorrow during Lent.  And after Easter, they would all go right back to boozing it up again.

Needless to say, my appreciation for the Roman Catholic faith has grown considerably over the years.  With the help of Roman Catholic friends (many of whom possessed a spirituality and an understanding of the Gospel that would put most Protestant fundamentalists to shame), and the writings of G. K. Chesterton, Richard John Neuhaus, Henri Nouwen, Carlo Caretto, Oscar Romero, and others, I have been profoundly impacted by the traditions and teachings of the Roman Catholic church -- which after all, was "The Church" until the sixteenth century's Protestant Reformation.

This Lenten season (a religious observance that I have now come to cherish) I will be focusing my personal devotions on the Rosary, which is a series of prayers used for meditation and reflection on the mysteries of Jesus Christ and the Gospel, and as homage to The Virgin Mary.  As I am not Catholic, I will ask your forgiveness for using Wikipedia and the Web for most of my source material on the Rosary.

According to Wikipedia, the Rosary is usually recited with the help of a string of beads that is attached to a small crucifix.  As each prayer is uttered, the individual slides their fingers along the beads, and uses them as a placeholder of sorts during the recitation of the prayers. 

A rosary provides a physical method of keeping track of the number of Hail Marys said. The fingers are moved along the beads as the prayers are recited. By not having to keep track of the count mentally, the mind is more able to meditate on the mysteries. A five decade rosary contains five groups of ten beads (a decade), with additional large beads before each decade. The Hail Mary is said on the ten beads within a decade, while the Our Father is said on the large bead before each decade. A new mystery is meditated upon at each of the large beads. Some rosaries, particularly those used by religious orders, contain 15 decades, corresponding to the traditional 15 mysteries of the rosary. Both five and 15 decade rosaries are attached to a shorter strand, which starts with a crucifix followed by one large, three small, and one large beads before connecting to the rest of the rosary. The praying of the rosary is started on the short strand, reciting the Apostle's Creed at the crucifix, an Our Father at the first large bead, three Hail Marys on the next three beads, then a Glory be to the Father on the next large bead. The praying of the decades then follows. Although counting the prayers on a string of beads is customary, the prayers of the rosary do not actually require a set of beads, but can be said using any type of counting device, by counting on one's fingers, or by counting by oneself without any device at all.

The most common series of Rosary prayers is:

• A sign of the cross on the Crucifix and then the "Apostles' Creed";
• An "Our Father" on the first large bead;
• A "Hail Mary" on each of the three small beads with the following intentions (the theological virtues):
  1. For the increase of faith
  2. For the increase of hope
  3. For the increase of charity
• A "Glory Be to the Father";
• Announce the mystery
• An "Our Father" on the large bead
• A "Hail Mary" on each of the adjacent ten small beads;
• A "Glory Be to the Father";
• Again an Our Father on the next large bead, followed by ten Hail Marys on the small beads, the Glory Be to the Father, (and Fatima Prayer); all for each of the following decades
• In conclusion, "Hail Holy Queen" and a sign of the cross.

There are four sets of Mysteries, each with five themes:

Joyful Mysteries

1. The Annunciation. Fruit of the Mystery: Humility
2. The Visitation. Fruit of the Mystery: Love of Neighbor
3. The Nativity. Fruit of the Mystery: Poverty (poor in spirit), Detachment from the things of the world, Contempt of Riches, Love of the Poor
4. The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: Purity
5. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: True Wisdom and True Conversion.

Sorrowful Mysteries

1. The Agony in the Garden. Fruit of the Mystery: Sorrow for Sin, Uniformity with the will of God
2. The Scourging at the Pillar. Fruit of the Mystery: Mortification
3. The Crowning with Thorns. Fruit of the Mystery: Contempt of the world
4. The Carrying of the Cross. Fruit of the Mystery: Patience
5. The Crucifixion. Fruit of the Mystery: Salvation

Glorious Mysteries

1. The Resurrection. Fruit of the Mystery: Faith
2. The Ascension. Fruit of the Mystery: Hope and desire for Heaven
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit. Fruit of the Mystery: Holy Wisdom to know the truth and share with everyone
4. The Assumption of Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Grace of a Happy Death and True Devotion towards Mary
5. The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Perseverance and Crown of Glory

Luminous Mysteries

1. The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. Fruit of the Mystery: Openness to the Holy Spirit
2. The Wedding at Cana. Fruit of the Mystery: To Jesus through Mary
3. Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Fruit of the Mystery: Repentance and Trust in God
4. The Transfiguration. Fruit of the Mystery: Desire for Holiness
5. The Institution of the Eucharist. Fruit of the Mystery: Adoration

That's a lot of praying.  A lot of praying.

What I plan to do in these posts is to explore the major prayers and creeds that make up the Rosary sequence (The Apostle's Creed, Hail Mary, The Lord's Prayer, Glory Be To The Father, Hail Holy Queen, and the Prayer of Fatima).  That means, of course, that I will be writing quite a bit about the Virgin Mary, which admittedly is a bit awkward for a Protestant.  I will then write about the Holy Mysteries and, consequently, the Gospel as I understand it. 

I've never before committed myself to such a deep study of the Gospel over a limited season such as Lent.  My life won't slow down around it either, yet I am confident that I can see it through.  And I will be prayerfully petitioning God for an increase of understanding and devotion as I contemplate these prayers and mysteries.

I'll begin in my next post -- thoughts on repetitive or meditative prayer.